It is known in the art relating to medical dressings for the protection and securement of catheters to apply a dressing to a patient's skin to cover a catheter insertion site at which the catheter punctures a patient's skin. It is also a conventional practice for medical clinicians (i.e., doctors, nurses, and other medical personnel) to separately apply an antimicrobial material (patch, liquid, ointment, etc.) at, around, or over the insertion site to protect the insertion site against the risk of infection.
However, conventional antimicrobial materials are cumbersome to use with catheter insertion site dressings because the antimicrobial material is separate from the dressing and must be applied prior to the positioning of the dressing over the insertion site. Further, some antimicrobial materials do not adequately protect all the surface area of a patient's skin around the catheter, due to the catheter hub holding the antimicrobial dressing/material up and away from the patient's skin, resulting in no contact “tenting” areas. Such an incomplete zone of inhibition decreases the effectiveness of the antimicrobial material. Hence, conventional antimicrobial materials do not consistently, reliably, and sufficiently protect catheter insertion sites against infection. Further, additional labor and material costs of two dressings/devices are needed. Therefore, a single, unified, integrated one-piece antimicrobial dressing has been a need, long-felt but heretofore unmet.